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Yet another blog

I am starting another blog today. Not that I have a bunch ofthese things floating around, but I've been blogging alot on theologyand social issues, my avocation, and not at all about myvocation. Other blogs I have started have been more personal anda little scary. The worst part of blogs is lack ofboundaries and expertise; the best part of blogging is appropriateboundares and some measure of expertise. <br /><br />So I tumbled to an add for Tech Republic and started writing. Sofar the experience has been easy, quick and reliable, which is thehallmark of truly advanced technology. I love things that workwithout brain surgery!<br /><br />This is yet another blog. I hope to keep this one going for a good while.<br /><br />

Wiki for internal use

A co-worker of mine reminded me of a common problem in smallcompanies: retaining knowledge over time. Staff come andgo. A company created, organized and reorganized. People'sresponsiblities change. How do we retain knowledge throughchange? Put another way, how do we "sustain" the organizationthrough change? <br /><br />You can get a global view of creating learning organizations by readingPeter Senge's "The fifth discipline: the art & practice ofthe learning organization." <br /><br />Down at the "Why did we do what we did when we did it" there areseveral ways to capture information. One is paper, which istime-honored but hard to manage. Another is a database of somekind. Well, we have BridgeTrak, a great call tracking system, butI find in a one or two-person I.T. shop it takes more time to updatethe call tracking system than it took to solve the originalproblem. Not every problem needs to be documented to the Nthlevel of detail.<br /><br />How about a wiki or a blog? I have used both on a personalbasis. Both have their uses. Wikipedia is a good (perhapsthe best, most successful) example of an interactive database. Web logs or "blogs" are ubiquitous. My blog on TechRepublic isonly the most recent example.<br /><br />How many non-profit organizations use blogs or wikis internally forknowledge retention? I used Ward Cunningham's web site(http://c2.com) to find an ASP-based wiki called Noodle(http://adamv.com/dev/asp/noodle/). It is simple to install, easyto understand and extend, and easy to use. I will describe how weuse Noodle in future posts.<br /><br />

Recovering time

As time's arrow only goes one direction (I know, there are quantum andrelativistic effects, but not in everyday life), there is no gettingwasted time back. For the purposes of this blog, I define "wastedtime" as time that doesn't strengthen human relationships, completechores or advance some goal (like losing 20 pounds). Likesearching the web for new FOSS software to compile on my eMac.<br /><br />I shelved a project to get a Python-based wiki working because I neededto find a database, a Python interface to that database, and then thenwiki itself. All three components needed to be built from sourceand installed. I thought I had everything working, but I began torun into what appeared to be little errors. The wiki wantedaccess to a database, but an include file was missing. Actuallyit was not missing, just not where the wiki expected it to be. SoI had a choice to run down the rabbit hole - or not.<br /><br />After a good 15 years of spending my free time this way, I have learnedjust a very little about when to quit. My "quit time" is down toabout a day and a half. It is not worth chasing down thedifferences in the installation locations of three pieces of softwarejust to run a wiki for local use.<br /><br />And that is not all. I could, if I wanted to, run a compiledprogram that does the same thing (I tried it, too much of a performancedrain). I could use a little journal program I bought for $20(which I am bored with for some reason and don't use. And its notthe first time I've bought some little diary program that I didn'tuse). I could use the PHP-based wiki I found and installed athome in 10 minutes (which I am likely to use) or the ASP-based wiki Ifound and installed at work (also in 10 minutes, and I am VERY likelyto use).<br /><br />Time sinks are many. Computers and all related to them are famoustime sinks. If I had been born 20 years earlier I'd probably be amotorhead, building cars. Its great to get mechanical andtechnological tools working, but in the end its like getting excitedabout a shovel. Or a pencil. They are just tools. They have no purpuse until they are used creatively.<br /><br />Its time to start the day and enjoy the rest of the weekend.<br /><br />

Advanced technology

I define "advanced technology" as any tool I can afford that workswithout fuss. My eMac, running OS X, is one such tool. Windows is, well, adequate most days. I wouldn't exactly call itadvanced, but it gets better with each major release.<br /><br />A great example of truly advanced techology, more advanced than anycomputer, is a pencil (or pen) and paper. It is ubiquitous. It isaffordable. It works without power. It has limitations (a leaky pen, nopencil sharpener, paper tears) but itworks. I am trying to use pencil & paper more often becauseof a consequence of constant typing: my penmanship, which was nevermore than "okay," has suffered. Other's have the same experience(see Mike Zielinski's "<a href="http://www.readingeagle.com/blog/zeke/archives/2005/07/_suddenly_every.html">Zeke Blog</a>" and Dana Hoffman's "<a href="http://www.readingeagle.com/blog/mother/archives/2005/07/cramp_in_my_sty.html#trackbacks">I'll Rest When I'm Dead</a>").<br />FYI, for Dana's post, click on the link and then scroll up above the track-back.<br /><br />One of the great things about a written journal is that I can practicemy handwriting. A written diary,journal or calendar also keeps some things secret; the lack ofboundaries in wikis, web logs and sites like Facebook and Webshots willcome back to haunt people, and sooner rather than later. It is nowonder employers aggressively pursue employees whose posts they don'tlike. What do you think will happen when your spouse or parentfinds your blog? An employer can only fire you. Your familycan punish you forever!<br /><br />

Blogger

See "Ivan Tribble's" article in the July 8th issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education, called "<a href="http://chronicle.com/jobs/2005/07/2005070801c.htm">Bloggers Need Not Apply</a>."<br /><br />TechRepublic is the first blog I've started and kept up. I post very selectively to other blogs.<br /><br />I also use Google's automatic search tools (we used to call them "SDIs"for "selective dissemination of information" in library school) to seewhere me and my email address pop up. I assure you that my lifestory is not posted on the Internet. A blog and my resume arequite enough, thank you, and even that may be too much.<br /><br />I suggest bloggers and wiki editors be far more circumspect in theirposting. Editors function as gatekeepers in the majormedia. I always wondered what function they served besides saying"Your story stinks," "Your writing stinks," and "We're not printingthat." Oh, yeah, to say "Your writing stinks. Do it againuntil I say stop." <br /><br />Now that everyone is their own editor, andthere are no gatekeepers to be found, then the unwashed (of whom I am aproud member) are self-publishing everywhere. I think the rewardswill ultimately be greater than the cost. But we've yet to seewhat the cost REALLY is in lost jobs - and lost trust.<br /><br />The killer application of the next 10 years will be a blog flusher,something that finds and selectively erases every unwanted post aperson has made to a blog.<br /><br />

Two thoughts on "social computing"

I have two thoughts on "social computing." The first is about theuse of blogs and wikis internally. Usefully enought there is anarticle about this on TechRepublic. See "<a href="http://techrepublic.com.com/5100-10878_11-5711955.html?tag=search">Blogs vs. wikis: Which is best for internal government use</a>"by Ramon Padilla Jr. Like all applications, the choice betweenone tool another depends on the problem to be solved, the skill levelof the end user, the right infrastructure, and adequate documentationand training. <br /><br />I had personally tried a great variety of time management and planningtools for personal and professional use. I found the bestcombination for me includes: 1) a hand-written diary for the mostpersonal topics. 2) a paper calendar (its portable, uses no powerand can be easily replaced). 3) a personal wiki on my eMac tolearn about wikis and organize my A+ study notes (I use <a href=". ">http://www.pmichaud.com/wiki/PmWiki/PmWiki">pmWiki</a&gt. 4) several wikis, organized by topics, for work projects (I'm trying multiple installations of <a href=". ">http://adamv.com/dev/asp/noodle/">Noodle</a&gt. 5) this blog on TechRepublic (the first I've started and kept updating, ever).<br /><br />I am also looking at a help-desk product called <a href="http://www.liberum.org/">Liberum</a>.I've used a variety of help desk products and none of them weresatisfying. My employer has a license for BridgeTrak andCIDiscovery, products of <a href="http://www.kemma.com">Kemma Software</a>. BridgeTrak and CIDiscovery are very good products; they would have beena great product in previous jobs, but it may be overkill for what I donow.<br /><br />I am interested in Liberum because it is "free" (nothing is free, butthe product can be had for nothing; it is impelementation that takestime. And we all know time is money). We need a web-basedwork order system for our maintenance department. Liberum mightbe just the ticket. The trick is making Liberum"HUD-compliant." That is a topic in itself, as is help-desksoftware.<br /><br />To finish my first thought, it takes some work to find a good fitbetween a stated or unstated need and software that meets theneed. <br /><br />The second thought is how to adopt "social computing" tools to a socialservices setting. I work for a non-profit agency that providesmental health services and supported housing. There is adiscussion, on-going, on the <a href="http://www.husita.org">HUSITA</a>("Human Service Information Technology Application") discussion listabout low technology literacy in human services work. It remindsme of librarianship 30 years ago. I finished my MLS (Master ofLibrary Science) degree in 1986, 19 years ago. In that time thelibrary profession has gained broad, deep and detailed technicalexpertise, rivaling anything to be found in industry. This isespecially true of academic librarianship.<br /><br />In short, I don't know if the counseling staff where I work will give ahoot about a wiki or a blog. I think excitement about technology,familiarity and comfort with technology, are a somewhatgenerational. The younger a person is (chronologically orbehaviorally) I find they accept technology more. Translatingthis into technical facility in the work place takes a long time. It has to be an organizational value, something expected and supportedby the organization. This support has been mixed over the courseof my career; government, industry and non-profits are somewhat cool totechnology education. You can't demonstrate how useful somethingis until you learn how to do it. You can't learn something new -on someone else's dime and time - unless you can show its useful. That is why I.T. people are auto-didacts. No one will teach you,so you have to teach yourself, and lift yourself up by your ownbootstraps. It gets old.<br />

Two thoughts on

<div>This is just the latest manifestation of the age old human condition known as 'I stick with what i am familiar with'. When the car was introduced the new generation went for it, many of the older generation never got used to it and some in between just accepted it when ever they could not avoid it. Thus horse were still in use for daily travel for many years following the wide spread use of the car. Same happened with the aeroplane, telephone, mobile phones, etc.</div><div> </div><div>I would have expected that by now a greater proportion of the population would have gotten used to and accepted the general use of computers - however, that rate of acceptance would appear toi match that of earlier techno changes. And, yes, they had similar problems with the technology changes in the industrial revolution.</div><div> </div><div>What I am waiting to observe is the level of acceptance for bio-interfaced computers, they are just over the horizen and approaching fast. How will people react to them, will we all see 'The Matrix' in our future or will we see them as something to create monster cyborgs or as a way or realising the full potential of people locked up in faulty bodies. Now there is a social computing problem for you to think about.</div>

(Very) low-end biometric security

I bought a Microsoft Fingerprint Reader to see if we could use it atwork. It would be convenient to use fingerprints in place ofpasswords at some (if not all locations). <br /><br />The reader I orderedfrom Staples was just $50 ($64 with tax and shipping). The readeruses a bundled copy of <a href="http://www.digitalpersona.com">Digital Persona</a> fingerprint reading software.<br /><br />I discovered this product does not work with Active Directory, so it is useless tous. This may have been apparent to others, but it was not tome. The packaging was not marked in anyway; the note about ActiveDirectory was buried in Digital Persona help file.<br /><br />In an Active Directory environment you need: a fingerprint readerfor each workstation. This is the least expensive part; a clientprogram that connects to the reader and the local Windows securitysubsystem. on a workstation; a "fingerprint server" which integratesthe tokensgenerated by client software from fingerprints into your AD forest.<br /><br />I have not priced all this, but for, say, 10 servers and 100+ workstations Ibet it comes to a tidy sum for both the initial and continuingcosts. Indirect costs, like the labor and travel time forinstallation and maintenance, must also be included. Staff willalso need training and orientation. What sounds simple isnot simple.<br /><br />I think we'll wait on acquiring and deployingbiometric security hardware and software - at least until Microsoftchanges the copy on the packaging for their low-end fingerprint reader.<br />

(Very) low-end biometric security

I too, explored the avenue of implementing biometrics into our company. I also got the Microsoft fingerprint reader and it works fine, except with domains. The single user software packaged with the reader does not work with A.D. Digital Persona does manufacture Active Directory software (Digital Persona Pro) starting at around $1200, and a $44 license fee for each end-user, plus the cost of the readers. At this time, it is very expensive for a small business to make this commitment. Sony manufactures the 'Puppy', but the user needs administrator rights. Until Microsoft irons out what software ships with their product, biometrics remains a 'nice' idea...

Why do projects succeed?

I watched some of the "special features" that come with "The Lord ofthe Rings" DVDs last night. I asked myself "How did Peter Jacksoncreate this work of art?" For that matter, how did J.R.R. Tolkeinand Peter Jackson manage their respective projects to such a successfuland lasting conclusion?<br /><br />Does anyone in business think this wayanymore? Does anyone in the <em>technology</em> business thinkthis way anymore? Are there any case studies on how and why booksor movies fail or succeed? Can lessons in the publishing and/orentertainment industries be applied to other industries? Itsworth looking in to.<br /><br />

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